“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Thursday, May 3, 2012

Buddhism and Phenomenological Sincerity

Check it, you nihilists:

"If you are trying to attain Joe Schmidt-hood, egohood, it is problematic. Joe Schmidt-hood is stubborn, aggressive, and speedy. On the other hand, Joe Schmidt-ness is quite reasonable; such a Joe Schmidt is not looking to attain Joe Schmidt-hood at all, but rather a could-not-care-less existence. That Joe Schmidt has a natural sense of dignity.

At that point, Joe Schmidt or Karen Doe has achieved some genuine understanding of him or herself. It may not be a full-blown accomplishment, but at that point, Joe and Karen begin to relax and feel good about themselves. Step by step, the situation evolves and becomes cheerful and humorous at the same time. Karen and Joe enjoy life. They eat good food, they enjoy how they dress, how they walk, how they talk, how they live."
Chogyam Trungpa


2 comments:

vajramrita said...

That's a nice quote, thank you! Just for posterity, I thought your readers might be interested in a slightly longer text putting the quote a little more in its original context - here it is:
http://vajramrita.tumblr.com/post/22332643269/if-we-understand-how-to-go-about-things-in-our-own

I'm not entirely sure that nihilists care very much about feeling good about themselves, but then you never know.

vajramrita said...

That's a great quote, thanks! Just for posterity, I thought your readers might be interested in seeing it in a slightly extended version of its original context - here it is:
http://vajramrita.tumblr.com/post/22332643269/if-we-understand-how-to-go-about-things-in-our-own

I'm not sure nihilists care very much about feeling good about themselves or anything else, but you never know.